^-^ 



^|^«-x 



IN THK 

Congress of the United States, 



A BILL 



TO CHANGE THE BOUNDARIES OF THE 
UNPCOMPAHGRE RESERVATION. 



Argti7ne?tt on the provisions of the measure in behalf 
of claimants who located the Bonanza, Cow Boy, 
and Little Bonanza Lodes, May 21, 1888, and 
whose clahns were dzdv recorded August 2'j, 1888. 



■*->->-^^(F^KP^fe^^* 



NLtON Pn 4tO 11TH 






%Ql^t 



TO CHANGE 

THE 



Boundaries of the Uncompahgre 
Reservation. 



It is understood that several (13 or more) fissure veins or lodes 
of gilsonite have been discovered within the eii^liteen townships 
of land sought to be restored to the public domain by the bill 
S. 574 ; some of these veins are covered by several claims. The 
names of the claims filed by tlie petitioners presenting this ar- 
gument are as follows : 

Bonanza Lode — Frying Pan and Utah. 

Cow Boy Lode — White River, Kansas City, Joseph A. 
Thatcher, Scori)ion, Lucky Boy, Leavenwortli, Cow Boy, Dixie, 
Bandana, Archie, Davy Crocket, Plumed Kniglit, Raffle, Black 
Jack, Wasatch, New York, Lorna Doone, Eureka and Colorow. 

Little Bonanza Lode — Mary Me and Ouray. 



PETITION. 

Whereas, a wealthy corporation owning a small fraction of the 
vast deposits of gilsonite which exist within a few townships of 
North-Eastern Utah, have endeavored to secure l(;gislation by 
Congress, enabling them to obtain all of said deposits, so as sub- 
stantially to establish a monopoly of this valuable mineral ; 

And whereas, Adolphus Busch, of said corporation has formally 
offered to buy from the United States all of said mineral deposits 
to be found within eighteen townships containing said gilsonite; 



Cfl^/Z'l ^^ 



And whereas, the consumption of sucli sale of these lands and 
minerals- would deprive many less wealthy citizens of their rights 
by discovery to these minerals, which riglits they are ready to 
perfect whenj)ermitted legally to do so. 

And wherea-'i the distribution of these Juiiieral lands to a large 
number of owners will greatly promote the early development 
of tiie region of countr}' l3'ing soutii of the Uintah Mountains ; 
while the possession of them by a single corporation will blight 
the region. 

We ask that RIGHT BY DISCOVERY be maintined, that jus- 
tice be done us, most of whom are pioneer settlers in the region ; 
whose discovery of the Bonanza, Cow Boy and Little Bonanza lodes 
were made before any gilsonite lands had been sold, who were then 
ignorant of the reservation boundarias and who have since been 
traduced as dishonest intruders, while in fact we were continu- 
ously obedient to the law, avoiding trespassing and were respect- 
ful to the Indi;in Agent in charge of the reservation. 

We ask the following amendment to the bill sul)mitted l)y the 
Cbmmittee on Indian Affairs at the end of the 9th line of Sec- 
tion 2, to wit : 

Provided., that any mineral location, heretofore made or attempted to 
be made on said lands, or any part thereof, by any qaalified person, 
who shall have made the same in good faith, shall bear date, and be 
alio\D(}d according to priority of claim therefor, as if said, lands had 
been public lands at the time said mineral location was made or at- 
tempted to he m,ade. 

THP: bill S. 574 AND COMMENTS THEREON. 

The bill (S. 574), introduced by Senator Teller, which was 
read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs (Dec. 
10, 1891), was as follows: 

A BILL 

To change the boundaries of the Uncompahgre Reservation. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representativeji of the 
United States if America in Congress assembled. That so much of 
the Uncompahgre Ute Indian R'.'Servation. in th^ Teri'itory of 



Utah, as is contained within the following description, namely, 
the two ranges of townships on the east side of said reservation 
adjoining the Colorado State line, being ranges twenty-four and 
twenty-five east. Salt Lake meridian, be, and the same is hereby, 
declared to be public lands of tlie United States, and restored to 
the public domain. 

Sec. 2. That from and after the passage of this act any of said 
lands that may be more valuable tor mineral purposes than for 
agriculture shall be open for exploration and purchase by citi- 
zens of the United States and those who have declared their in- 
tention to become such, according to existing laws for the dis- 
posal of mineral lands ; and such portions thereof as may be 
non-mineral in character shall be otherwise disposed of accord- 
ing to the existing laws for the disposal of other public lauds of 
the United States; and the proceeds from these lands shall con- 
stitute a fund in the Treasury of the United States to be devoted 
to the education and civilization of said Uncompahgre Ute 
Indians, in such manner as Congress shall hereinafter declare. 

We believe that this bill should contain provision recognizing 
a right to mineral claims, for the discovery thereof, heretofore 
made, within the area of these lands, under bona fide proceedings 
by the claimants ; we are prepared to yield obedience to the law 
and accept, as the best we can get, the legislation provided for in 
the above bill, which is impartial to that extreme degree that it 
will open the way for working some injustice to us. It may 
compel us to bear costly litigation in defending the rights which 
the Supreme Court of the United States says locators have the 
privilege of perfecting when reservation lands are restored to the 
public domain. 

We believe that the bill should contain the following proviso, 
copied from the Act of May 24, 18S8 : 

" Provided, That any location, entry, or entries, mineral or 
non-mineral, heretofore made or attempted to be made, on said 
lands, or any part thereof, by any qualified person, shall bear 
date, and be allowed, the same as if said lands had been public 
lands at the time of said attempted location or institution of said 
proceedings." 

Attention is respectfully invited to the fact that said act of 
May 24, 1888, which restored to the public domain a part of the 



Uintah Valley Indian Reservation was passed to enable the pro- 
moters of the St. Louis Gilsonite Company to buy their mines, 
for the protection of which they are now unfavorable to like 
legislation similarly favorable to others. 

The discovery of the Cow Boy and two Bonanza lodes was 
made May 21, 1888, before the change in the boundaries of the 
Uintah Valley Reservation were made, and should have been 
provided for in the same legislation. 

THE COMMITTEE'S BILL. 

The amended bill, submitted by the Senate Committee on 
Indian Affairs February 16, 1892, reads as follows : 

A bill to change the boundaries of the Uncompahgre Reserva- 
tion. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary 
of the Interior is hereby authorized to cause to be surveyed, in 
accordance with the laws of the United States, but subject to his 
special direction in order to the proper division into lots of lands 
having mineral thereon, so much of the land or country lying 
within the Uncompahgre Ute Indian Reservation in the Terri- 
tory of Utah as is contained within the two ranges of townships 
on the east side of said reservation adjoining the Colorado State 
line, being ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east from the Salt 
Lake meridian, and as he shall think desirable for the public 
interest and not incompatible with the interests of the Indians 
upon said reservation. 

Sec. 2. That after the completed survey and platting of the 
lands which shall be so ordered to be surveyed under the pre- 
ceding section shall have been made, the Secretary of the Inter- 
ior may dispose of the same at public auction, after due notice 
of not less than ninety days, and in lots not exceeding one 
hundred and sixty acres to any one purchaser, to the highest 
bidder for cash, but no lot or subdivision as surveyed which 
shall contain asphalt or gilsonite or other valuable mineral 
shall be sold at a less price than ten dollars per acre, nor 
any other land at less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per 
acre; and the monevs received from such sale shall be paid into 
the Treasury of the United States. 

We are not concerned about the disposition which the Govern- 
ment may make of the moneys received for the lands sold. Our 



interest is that of retaining our own right of purchase, which 
we secured years since, by proceedings taken in strict conformity 
with the laws of the United States, and we think that we ought 
not to be now deprived of our contingent right by ex post facto 
legislation, which this bill, as amended, would become if passed. 
In our opinion it is a measure in the interest of monopolists. It 
is unamerican. It gives to wealthy corporations a chance to bar 
out all discoverers, and it is a bar to further discoveries being 
made of mineral within this strip. What inducement is there 
in the bill to encourage any one to prospect for minerals within 
these two ranges of townships? If any were found the finders 
would be compelled to compete for ownership with corporations 
who would not know of their existence until advertised for sale. 
All precedents that we have to guide us recognize the prior rights 
of discoverers, and we think the proposed legislation should do 
the same. 

The distribution of these mineral lands to a large number of 
owners will greatly promote the early development of the 
country south of the Uintah Mountains, while the possession by a 
single company will blight the region. In fact the situation which 
would exist in the latter case would be a realization of monopo- 
listic control, in respect to asphalt industries, much worse than 
that of the Standard Oil Company over petroleum industries, or 
that of anthracite coal proposed by the Reading Railroad Com- 
pany. 

ON THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 

We present for your coasideration our view of the report num- 
ber 240, which the Senate Committee on Indian Afliiirs submit- 
ted with the amended bill February 16, 1892. 

The part of the Committee's report which relates to the method 
of sale proposed for these lands reads as follows : 

Since the land mentioned in this bill was included within the 
Uncompahgre Ute Reservation it has been discovered to contain 
large and valuable veins of gilsonite or asphaltum. The dis- 
covery does not appear to have been made by any particular 



person or under any such circumstances as gives any particular 
person the least equitable claim beyond the general public. 

It appears that the Committee was not in the possession of 
correct information concerning the discovery of certain mineral 
claims made by us> which information is a matter of record in 
the form of written descriptions made as the law prescribed, and 
recorded where and as the law compels, and it was not until we 
had, with a compass, surveyed lines to connect the locations with 
marks established by the United States Government that we 
ascertained their relations to an Indian Reservation. 

The continuous reading of the Committee's report is as fol- 
lows : 

Neither could any private parties have acquired by any 
attempted location or settlement or other form of claim the 
slightest right to any special preference or recognition on the 
part of the Government. 

We believe that the declaration made in these sentences of the 
Committee's report was written without duly considering the 
fact that the Supreme Court of the United States (Vol. 121, page 
393, etc.) concedes that the preliminary steps taken by a dis- 
coverer to establish a mining claim within an Indian Reservation, 
while not creating any absolute right, does confer a contingent 
right entitling them to protection therein if, after the lands are 
restored to the public domain, they proceed diligently to perfect 
their title as the law may require. 

If we were trespassers at the time, it was because the boundary 
of the reservation was unknown to us. Our discovery was made 
at an early date before the transfer of any gilsonite lands to the 
public domain, and while the promoters of the St. Louis Gilsonite 
Company were developing their mines. We are aware that the 
reflections on all claimants to discoveries of gilsonite veins, other 
than those of the St. Louis Compan}^, include other parties than 
ourselves, and we deny all liability for whatever acts they may 
have committed. In their behalf, assuming that they were 
knowingly trespassing on the reservatson, this circumstance only 



subjects them to the penalties therefor legally imposed, and 
cannot deprive them of rights of discovery if they properly per- 
fect their claims after the lands are restored to the public do- 
main, as we understand the decision of the United States Su- 
Court, above referred to. 

The continuous reading of the report is as follows : 



In opening these lands to the public, therefore, two principles 
ought to receive acknowledgment ; the one that the value of 
these mineral veins belongs to the general public and ought to be 
enjoyed by receiving to the credit of the general public account 
their mone}'^ worth and not be allowed to pass under some pre- 
text of disposition to the enrichment of private parties through 
any favoritism of legislation or administration, and the other 
that an equal opportunity ought to be afforded to all citizens to 
obtain upon equal terms these valuable mineral lands. 

There seems no other practicable way to accomplish these 
objects but to dispose of the lands to tlie highest bidder at auc- 
tion. All other modes of disposition of public lands now pro- 
vided by law are merely farcical when applied to such a case as 
this." 



We feel that this is not the occasion on which to discuss the 
broad principle of offering at public sale to the highest bidder 
all mineral lands owned by our Government ; probably as a rule of 
universal practice some such provision by general law, universally 
applicable, would be both wise and beneficent ; but we have no 
hesitation in taking a position that any partial law, applicable 
to an individual instance only, would be so unjust that to call 
attention to the facts ought to insure its rejection. 

The report recites that — 

the mineral laws are not adapted in nature to lands of this kind, 
because the gilsonite or asphalt is easily discoverable and 
requires no such protracted and costly exploration as must be 
given, or as usually is given, by those who seek for gold or silver 
or other mineral. 

There must be a distinction made between gilsonite and asphalt, 
which are spoken of in the report as if the names were synony- 



mous. Such is not the case. Gilsonite is an asphalt found only 
in fissure veins, and its outcrop, owing to its perishable nature, is 
covered with soil and rubbish hiding it from sight, and making 
it difficult to locate. The asphalt is not a gilsonite and cannot 
be in any sense so called. Its deposits are only hardened beds 
of mineral tar, which have formed around or adjoining springs 
of that material. They are notably conspicuous and exist in 
myriad numbers in many of our States and Territories. They are 
often called gum beds. In but very few instances have they any 
commercial value. 

In addition to the two above named bituminous minerals, 
there exists in northeastern Utah, and extending from the sum- 
mit of the Wasatch Mountains to the eastern plains of Colorado, 
extensive sandrock formations, impregnated with bitumen of 
various degrees of consistence, and in so small a percentage as 
to not have any commercial value. It is from these sedimentary 
strata that the mineral tars have exuded, and also probably, that 
in some long past age of the world, that from them has been 
pressed the then viscid substance which has filled the then open- 
ing fissures in the overlying beds of rock, and which has from 
some undefined influences been changed into gilsonite as we now 
find it. 

A vein of gilsonite is much less easily found by a prospector 
than is a vein of any kind of quartz or other enduring stone ; 
and those legal procedures which provide for giving title to gold 
and silver bearing veins are specially fitted for veins of gilsonite. 
The veins of hard material are likely to stand above the native 
beds in lines of conspicuous dikes, that a prospector may even 
run against and climb over, while the outcrop of the veins of 
gilsonite, are burnt away or weathered into decay so that the 
recognizable material is quite sure to be in a depression, and 
covered with earth, gravel and vegetable mould. 

And we call attention to the fact that this report contains a 
theory which implies that the right of acquiring mineral claims 
from public lands rests upon the circumstance of more or less 
expense or difficulty incurred in finding them. The whole his- 
tory of mineral discovery throughout the world is but a recount 



of romantic accidents, and very rarely, indeed, has rich mineral 
discovery been the fruit of studied effort. A slipping foothold 
has uncovered a mineral ledge, a browsing goat exposed metallic 
gravel; golden nuggets and diamonds have been taken from the 
chicken's crop ; a heedless blow by the prospector's hamer on 
the rock he was sitting on, and otherwise, by the commonest in- 
cident and accident, mineral deposits worth uncounted millions 
have been revealed and ownership conceded to the lucky finder. 
In northeastern Utah are many thousand square miles of 
rough mountain land containing throughout its whole area many 
thousand surface deposits of asphaltum ; of which not one in a 
thousand has any commercial value, and the presence of which 
in a general way has been known to every person who traversed 
the region. The number of valuable deposits of gilsonite in 
proportion to the total number of asphalt deposits visible is ex- 
tremely small, and their selection has been preceded by so much 
prospecting as to justify the retention of this class of minerals 
within the provisions of the law applicable to gold and silver 
deposits. 



REMINISCENCES. 

There was published in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, June 
81, 1890, an official document signed by the President of the St. 
Louis Gilsonite Company, concerning the bills then pending in 
Congress for the same purpose as the bill (S. 474) under consid-" 
eration. The memorial so published was lacking in some re- 
spects in information necessary to a full and proper understand- 
ing of the case. To remedy these omissions from the text the 
memorial is reprinted here with a few explanatory interlinea- 
tions. 

Your memorialists respectfully represent that they are inter- 
ested in and part owners of a mine of gilsonite, a new kind of 
asphaltum superior to all others, lying in northeastern Utah, near 
to Fort Duchense, and just east of Uintah reservation ; that for 
this property its present owners, the Gilson Asphaltum Company 
of St. Louis, Mo., paid \_private claimants] the sum of $115,000 



10 

[the United States Govermaent haviny received ^20.00 an acre net] ; 
that at the time of such purchase the said company knew of 
[cm unimportant'] deposit of this mineral lying a short distance 
from the Colorado State line, in the Uncompaghre reservation 
which had been discovered by B. Zebolt [noiv Post Trader^, an 
officer of the said Gilson Asphaltum Company. Knowing of the 
existence of this last deposit, this company [felt justified in ami] 
paid for its mine a larger sum than it otherwise would have done, 
hoping that at some time an opportunity would be given 
to compete for the purchase of these [unimportant] deposits lying 
within the reservation [and thereby securing a control of the gilsonite 
trade]. 

About two years ago some Colorado parties came into the res- 
ervation [soidh of White River, on Evacuation Creek], smd attempted 
to locate and operate some of these deposits, putting up wire 
fences and a shanty ; but the Indian Agent, Col. Bryner, ex- 
pelled them and destroyed their improvements. Latterl}' the 
whole reservation has been overrun by prospectors, with the evi- 
dent purpose of coming to Congress to secure more bills to vali- 
date their pretended locations, provided this bill shall become a 
law. To such an extent has the reservation been overrun by 
them that the Government officers have been compelled to clear 
them off [for the region is so ivild and rouyh that no one can 
fell his position ivithin it, or guess within •miles of possible error 
the location of the boundary line while this last is probably not 
truly located]. There are [so far as ive know, only] two deposits 
of gilsonite within the two ranges of townships proposed to be 
restored to the public domain by Senate bill 1762 ; one is a fis- 
sure vein about 34 feet in thickness and about two miles in 
, length ; the other deposit is but a small portion of a similar 
vein, the main body of which lies west of the above-named 
ranges of townships. All of these [tivo sir; a^/ vems] within the 
ranges can be taken up under the provisions of Senate bill 1762, by 
a location of not more than fifteen acres, for which the United States 
would receive the sum of $20 per acre, or, in the aggregate, the 
mere pittance of $300 [tlte same prroportionately that was paid the 
Government for our mines]. No other valuable mineral [mind that 
we do not say other mines of this minercd] has been found within 
the Uncompahgre Ute reservation. If the Gilsonite veins within 
these two ranges of townships were offered by the Government 
at public sale the Gilson Asphaltum Company stands ready to 
pay for the veins therein containing that mineral the sum of 
$50,000 [or any other sv/tn that will give us a monopoly of this product]. 



11 

If those lands are to be again restored to tlu^ pat)lic domain 
in the usual manner, so that all persons \v ml 1 liive ''41 il op 
P'trtunity to make entries and locations, tlu; to us gross uijii,-.Liic 
ot" the })resent hill would be avoided \jdlhough we did not think so 
two years ago when we sought like legislation']. Locations have 
already been made by certain gentlemen of all the gilsonite 
within three townships [that is if we know all about the mines in a 
resennition from which ive have always been excluded, and can only 
know by irregular trespass]. The etfect, therefore, ot" the present 
bill is the same as if the Government were saying, " we will sell 
these lands to those persons at the sum of S"20 per acre." The 
amendments made to the bill since its introduction make it more 
objectional:)le [to us] than as it originally stood, for it not only 
deprives the Secretary of the Interior of the right to offer the 
lands at public sale [regardless of acquired rights], and thereliy 
secure to the Government tlieir real value [but regardless of the 
just claims of bovafide locators], but it also takes from the Uiicom- 
pahgre Utes the i)enefits of the moneys that may be realized 
therelVom [to which they have no legal claim]. 

The original was, before our interlineations were made, signed 
and sworn to by Charles 0. Baxter, president of the coiupany. 



THE ACT OF 1888. 

Copy of the law by which the St. Louis Gilsonite Company 
secured title to universal claims, located in the Uintah Valley 
Reservation. 

Chap. 310, Statutes at Large, Vol. 25. An act to restore to the 
pul)lic domain a pai-t of the Uintah Valley Indian Reservation, 
in the Territory of Utah, and for other purposes. May 24, 1888. 

Be it enacted, etc., That so much of the Uintah Valley Indian 
Reservation, in the Territory of Utah, as lies within the following 
boundary, * * * be, and the same is hereby, declared to the 
puMic lands of the United States and restored to the public do- 
main. 

Sko. 2. That said lands shall be disposed of at public or pri- 
vate sale in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, and 
upon his order, in quantities not exceeding one-quarter of a sec- 
tion to any one piu'chaser, the non-mineral lands for not less than 
one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and not otherwise tlian 



12 

for cash : Provided, That any location, entry or entries, mineral 
or non-mineral, heretofore made or attempted to be made on said 
lands, or any part thereof, by any qualified person, shall bear 
date and be allowed the same as it" said lands had been public 
lands at the time of said attempted location or institution of said 
proceedings, but said mineral entries shall not be completed ex- 
cept upon payment of twenty dollars an acre, or at that rate for 
the amount taken up by the claim. 

[The proceeds of sales to go to Indians] Sec. 3 [ratification by 
the Indians]. 



OPINION OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. 

On the 14th of March, 1890, in a communication to the 
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs the Hon. Secretary of the 
Interior stated facts and opinions relative to the rights of claim- 
ants to mineral lands in these eighteen townships as follows : 

The Uncompahgre Reservation, created by Executive order of 
January 5, 1882, was not intended to be set apart as a, permanent 
reservation for the Uncompahgres * * * The provisions relative 
to ' any location, entry, or entries,' etc., allowing them ' to bear 
date and l)e allowed the same as if lands had l>een public lands 
at the time of said attempted location,' should, I tiiink, be 
amended. There mav have been some claims located near the 
l)oundary line and within the reservation, on account of the line 
not l)eing clearly mnrked and designated, which claims should 
be protected, but the proviso should include only such as show 
conclusively their good faith in making their claims, otherwise 
the Government is otfering a premium to trespassers and viola- 
tors of law and order of the President n estal)Iishing temporar\' 
reservation for these Indians. 
Very respectfully, 

John W. Noble, 

Secretary. 

The claimants to the Bonanza, Cow Boy and the Little Bo- 
nanza lodes stand ready to })rove the bona fide character of all 
their proceedings in acquiring their claims, they seek an oppor- 
tunitv to do so. 



